Meaningful Summers

Since 2013, this teen-led group has encouraged their peers to create events that will inspire change in their community.

Over 100 teens recently gathered at the Naperville Yard Indoor Sports Complex for some kickball action to raise money for this year’s healthy initiative.

“We have about 125 kids coming in, 11 teams and they are going to have some healthy competition, hopefully break a sweat,” said Meaningful Summers Co-Executive Director Svanik Tandon. “We’re focusing on promoting physical health and social health by encouraging teens in the community to stay active and build positive relationships with each other.”

The Healthier Youth Campaign is raising awareness about the level of stress and strain in the school environment and it’s impact on students.

“Our goal for this initiative is to spread awareness for the importance of youth health in our community and also to remind our youth to focus on themselves,” said Meaningful Summers Co-Executive Director Ashwin Saxena. “Because what tends to happen is people start to focus on school and success more and they sort of neglect their own health and it’s become a problem in our community especially with a lot of health related occurrences in the past year.”

The event raised over $2,500, which is up from last year. Meaningful Summers’ next event is a Night Out on August 7 at the Water Street Mall in Aurora.